Looking for a good aux tank & tool box for a short bed with a 5th wheel hitch. Can't be more that 18-20" deep from the head of the bed to the hitch and need to fit the wheel wells. I see American tank and Transferflow has a nice ones but they're pricy.

ALso what about the gravity feed systems? Any comments? Seams to save a bunch with no electrics for switches and gauges.

Any deals out there?

 

Derek,

The best buy I find out there on a quality aux tank/tool box combo is the RDS available at Northern Tool. RDS also makes a gravity install kit that makes it duck soup to hook it up. Take a look at Northern. I also have a write up on this forum under Old FAQ's where I document the install of my
tank in my truck before they put out the install kits. The kit contains almost the same setup. Take a peak at it. Like you say, no pumps, no wires, no electric valves to go wrong. And it is a way bunch cheaper than Transfer Flow, like 1/2 the price. Sure love mine.

Bob

 

FiverBob! What a blast from the past! Good to see you posting. I haven't been around DTR or TDR in the past few years nearly as much, not sure about you..hope Sarasota is still treating you well.

I met up with FiverBob back in 2003 when I had the exact same question Derek, and he showed me his truck's setup..which gave me the confidence to do the install myself. I also got the 51 gallon tank/tool combo from RDS, and used a simple 90 degree ball valve down through the bed via gravity to a Racor 120B filter setup (I use 2 micron in the warm months, and 10 micron in the winter), then from the filter the fuel is T'ed into the fuel filler neck overflow vent tube. I had the entire thing sprayed with line-x to match the bed. I am extremely happy with the setup, have not touched it since 2003 aside from changing filters. I HIGHLY recommend installing the filter (you would be surprised how many have clogged).

Just to head off any redundant posts, when set up this way these are considered 'transfer tanks' not primary or secondary fuel tanks, since they have no direct connection to the engine, and thus are 50 state legal when set up this way. If you plan to plumb directly to the engine with some sort of switching setup, you may want to examine your state's laws in regards to gravity.